Code for Science and Society Inc
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Code for Science & Society was founded to advance the power of data to improve the social and economic lives of all people through education, scientific research, and technology development. We work in open source software, open scholarship, and the open data community to build sustainable projects that promote the public interest. In doing that work, we have grown to recognize the common issues facing those who build technology and communities around core open principles. This issues include 1) managing open source contributions, 2) managing teams and remote work 3) navigating the world of funding, 4) developing sustainable funding or business plans, 5) developing and implementing governance that works, 6) engaging global communities, 7) budgeting and financial administration, 8) nonprofit compliance, 9) grants management, 10) managing open licensing and open source intellectual property.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Fiscally Sponsored Projects
We bring together innovative projects committed to the public good and provide them with financial and administrative and strategic support. We support communities across domains, enabling projects to learn from each other to develop future-facing solutions that empower people. We are looking for projects that want to participate in our community, who value collaboration over competition, and who are aligned with our mission.
Event Fund
Code for Science and Society’s Event Fund invests in data science communities with grants for events and training for organizers.
This community-governed fund supports events that build inclusive communities. By investing directly in communities, the Event Fund cultivates both data skills and social infrastructure to support robust communities of practice.
Digital Infrastructure Incubator
Changing the way we build, support, and maintain open infrastructure.
To shift towards more sustainable, more equitable practices, technologists need more than resources, checklists, or playbooks. Meaningful change comes from gradual shifts in behavior -- not quick fixes or new tools.
We're pulling the incubator model away from venture capital and speed. We're prioritizing community, transparency, access, and equity. No matter the project, these are hard to build and even harder to maintain. But we're here to support teams as they keep working at it. Change will come with practice.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We envision a future where community centered open public interest technology initiatives are strong and sustainable. Where these projects compete in the marketplace with corporate-backed tech and win because they work. Where anyone can access philanthropic capital -- that is coupled with practical and strategic support -- to launch a project that advances open knowledge and enhances people’s lives.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To achieve this vision, we take a practical approach that focuses on implementing the best organizational practices to build sustainable foundations for our work and projects. Currently we are focusing in three key areas:
1. Programs: Build and run programs that keep projects and leaders on a positive trajectory and enhance the open technology ecosystem
2. Operations: Build operations to support our development as an effective and efficient organization, prioritize documentation and transparent processes to model operational best practices
3. Sustainability: Innovate models and partnerships that enhance the open tech ecosystem and provide stable, engaging, fulfilling jobs
We work to support open source, public interest technologies that align with our mission with practical financial and administrative support through our Fiscally Sponsored Projects Program. The projects that are an excellent fit for fiscal sponsorship at CS&S also align with our strategy in that they are also innovative in their approach to leadership, operations and/or sustainability.
We improve access to the open data and public interest technology ecosystem by building funding mechanisms, governance structures, and educational resources that center community needs and transparent processes in our Collaborative Communities Program. This includes documenting and sharing openly our own organizational processes, and the processes and stories of our fiscally sponsored projects and community members.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
CS&S is uniquely qualified to work at the intersection of science, technology, and public interest initiatives. The team has built expertise in managing fiscally sponsored projects, working collaboratively with funders to de-risk and manage grants and donations, and building effective programs in science, scholarship, and civic tech. Executive and staff bios are can be found at https://codeforscience.org/people.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
CS&S operates the Sponsored Projects Program to offer fiscal sponsorship coupled with strategic support to mission-aligned projects across public interest technology domains. Our Sponsored Projects Program has continued to grow over the second half of FY 2018-2019. This growth continues to drive the financial stability of CS&S, and points to a major need in the public interest technology community. However, we are beginning to see indications that it’s time to add staff if we hope to support a larger number of projects in 2020. We will review growth in this program, discuss formalizing our due diligence process and Board approval process, and discuss strategies to fund additional staff to support the continued growth of this work.
CS&S’ Collaborative Communities Program centers on growing the capacity of communities to build, own, and sustain values-centered technologies. Work in this area over the last six months includes community focused research (Moore sustainability research grant), community-focused events and development of open educational resources (Invest in Open Infrastructure leadership, inclusion centered follow up from the 2018 OSAOS event, and a leadership development event at csv,conf,v4). Through strategic collaborations and networking, we’ve also grown this program in the second half of 2018-2019. The potential and resonance with the community of this program is evidenced by robust community engagement and participation. Growing the Collaborative Communities revenue to better sustain activities is a critical goal for the next 12 months, however we have yet to gain traction with funders. We will discuss key opportunities to pursue this work and new strategies to consider.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Code for Science and Society Inc
Board of directorsas of 11/30/2022
Kari Jordan
The Carpentries
Shannon Dosemagen
Kari Jordan
The Carpentries
Jonathan Cain
University of Oregon Libraries
Jochai Ben-Avie
Timnit Gebru
Distributed AI Research Institute
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data